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Indigenous women giving crocodile business bite

Giovanna Webb (left) has been helping women from Maningrida to get involved in Australia's crocodile industry.

Matt Brann

The crocodile industry in the Arnhem Land community of Maningrida is going from strength to strength, thanks to some help from the Northern Territory's Rural Woman of the Year.

Since winning the award last year, Giovanna Webb has been working to get more indigenous women involved in Australia's crocodile industry.

She says a number of women from Maningrida have now been trained and are keen to use those skills to expand their local industry.

"We've now got five full-time women rangers working on the crocodile industry in Maningrida." Giovanna said.

"Having more women involved, means we have more people to look after the (croc) eggs and look after the hatchlings, which we will buy here at Crocodylus Park (near Darwin).

"So it's a win-win situation, because here at Crocodylus we'll get better crocodiles, we'll increase the quota which we buy from Maningrida, and they'll be able to employ more people, which will generate income and provide more benefits to the community."

Rangers Tara Rostron and Patricia Gibson have spent the last week in Darwin learning about the crocodile industry and collecting eggs from nearby wetlands.

Ms Gibson says egg collecting is traditionally done by the men at Maningrida, but after training she hopes the women can be involved as well.

"I'm really interested in collecting eggs and enjoy getting in the helicopter," she said.

"It's been good getting this training here in Darwin, and when we go back we could follow the men and collect eggs (as well)."

Ms Rostron says Maningrida currently has a incubator and when crocs hatch they are sold to Crocodylus Park.

She hopes the community can expand the industry and produce more crocs, and instead of selling hatchlings straight away, raise them to one year old, which would be more valuable.

"We've got just the one small incubator in the nursery, but I'm looking forward to the future where we might have a bigger incubator, collect more eggs and sell them when they grow up to Crocodylus Park."

Giovanna Webb is the 2013 RIRDC Rural Woman of the Year. To learn more about her and her project click here.